Travel Hacks: Prep & Planning

This episode is all about getting ready and planning for better international travel.

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Transcript

This is episode number 28 and it's all about travel hacks. Getting ready and planning for a better international travel. Some of these tips may also be relevant if you are going a long way from home, even if you're staying inside your own country. But first I want to share, what's bringing me joy right now.

I cannot believe that we are. 25% of the way through the year already. The flowers are just all coming into bloom and everything feels like spring is springing. At least where I am. I'm loving how all of the birds are just coming out and singing. When a few weeks ago they were very quiet. Now, all of a sudden here they are, and they've got a new song and something to say. 

So that's, what's bringing me joy right now. All right. Let's dive in and start with a few tips. That'll help you before you go. So first and foremost, I was slow to get a travel credit card. And now. I don't know how I lived without one for so long. Travel credit cards are an essential, in my opinion. And I will tell you why. First of all, make sure when you are booking travel, that you use your travel credit card to pay for at least part of each item in your trip. 

So. If you are using points for a flight, then at least use your travel card to pay the fees and taxes that you're going to have to pay. If you are using, you know, Airbnb gift card that you got at a discount to book your Airbnb, leave a few dollars and put it on your travel credit card. You'll have to check the fine print of the card that you use. 

But in many cases, if you put even part of the airfare or the rental car or any of those kinds of things on your card, it opens you up to be eligible for all of the great benefits. And so the card that I use is chase Sapphire reserve. I'm big fan of this one. I started out with the lower version, the chase Sapphire preferred, because that one was only like $99 a year, I think was the fee. And it was easy to have the fee pay for itself, but, the Sapphire reserve does have a higher fee associated with it. 

It's closer to $600 a year, but it is so worth the cost. So first of all, you'll get $300 refunded to you every year on all sorts of travel expenses. And that happens automatically. So that in and of itself covers about half of that fee. Even things like parking deck admissions and, Rental cars and Uber rides. What counts as travel is pretty broad and you don't have to do anything just as soon as you start putting those little expenses on there, they're automatically refunded. 

So I actually put in my budgeting software, I put the annual fee and those reimbursements, I categorize all that in my travel category, since it brings me so much. The other things I like about the specific travel card I have are it gives you pretty good lounge access and restaurant discounts at airports. 

So that can bring a lot of savings, not just comfort. Now, certainly the lounges are nice to have access to, especially if you are stuck for a long time. Each travel card gives you different lounge access, but the Sapphire reserve gives you some priority lounges that are pretty good. And even in airports where they don't have the lounges or where they might not be one in your terminal. They often have a restaurant where you get a direct discount of it's pretty sizable. 

I want to say it's 25 or $35 per head. So you basically can save between either the food that is in the lounge and drinks. If you want that, or the restaurant discount, you can easily save the cost of a meal, several times a year in the airport. So that is a really nice perk. And of course, having access to the lounges can be really, really nice too. You do want to check your local airport? 

Mine. Unfortunately, RDU does not have a lounge that maps to this credit card. But still we have enough connections and other places that it's worthwhile. 

Another thing I like about the credit card I have is that it gives you very good travel insurance for a variety of situations. 

If my bags get delayed or lost for a minimum of six hours, Then I can go out and buy what I need and do the paperwork and I will get the money back. It gives me if my trip gets delayed or canceled, all kinds of incidentals that happen to you pretty often. If you are a frequent traveler. That really does help out with things like the meal costs and hotel costs. 

And the first time you go to do one of these reimbursements, it is a giant pain in the, you know, what. But Google it ahead of time when it's actually happening. So you understand what are the forms? That you need to get when you're still at the airport, what is the documentation you need to produce? And I've also found that if you call the company and you show them, look, these are all the ways I've tried to get the documentation that you want. 

I just can't get that specific thing you're asking for. They generally recognize good faith effort and you will get your money back. Unlike the airlines, where, for example, they asked me to mail off all of my original receipts for a bunch of things I had to purchase when they lost my bags for several days. And I had to give them my original receipts and they never contacted me back. 

And then when I contacted them, they said, well, we're, you'd have to show us your receipts. And I said, well, you told me I had to send you my receipts. How can I show them to you? So, uh, also a good lesson there. Make sure you take pictures of anything. If it's an original that you're required to send off. And put a reminder on your calendar so that when six weeks pass you remember, wait a second. 

I haven't been reimbursed. So a little bit of a hassle, but I think once you kind of understand the system and how it works, it does get easier. Another perk you get with many travel cards is rental car insurance. And that saves a lot of money. And often it is easier then going through the rental car insurance company that they will push on. 

You. So you do need to make sure that you call ahead. If you're going to rent a car, especially internationally. You need to call your credit card benefit provider and get a letter from them that shows you have that coverage. The rental car agency will tell you what they need, but you want to call ahead and have that already printed out and brought with you. There are all kinds of other things that you get with a travel card. 

So another is you get sign up bonuses and extra points that will get you free airfare. So for me, that's really the big allure that got me to first sign up for one. I was able to get several international flight tickets out of just signing up and spending the spending limit within a couple months. And now I pretty much every year managed to get a free ticket or two out of my chase card. 

Cause I put things on it and pay it off. Now, if you have issues with credit card debt, meaning you will charge things on your card and spend more because it's on a credit card or you won't pay it off in full every month, then disregard everything I'm saying about a travel credit card. You, uh, that's not good for you. 

Don't do it. It's not worth the potential payoff. If you're going to go into debt or spend more than need to spend. But if you are responsible with it and you're able to manage that, then certainly there are a lot of good benefits. One of the huge benefits that comes with a travel card is most of them. waive international transaction fees. 

And so if you go abroad and you start using your standard credit card to pay for things, Or your debit card, you are going to get these little one, two, $3 per transaction fees. And that is not fun to be surprised by that when you get home and have all of those adding up on your card. So that alone is good reason to have a travel card. 

If you travel internationally. 

Okay. So when it comes time to booking your flights, as I mentioned, use the travel card, even just to pay for part of it, but watch out when you are booking flights, there are a lot of things that if you don't have much experience booking airfare, especially long haul airfare, you can get tripped up by the websites and not notice things. 

So you want to look out for a couple of things. One. Does this require an overnight stay this connection that I have to make. Because if it's going to save you a hundred dollars on your ticket to take this one flight. But you don't realize, oh, this flight requires me to go get a hotel room in New York city. 

Well, where are you going to do that? For a hundred dollars? There goes your savings right there. So look out for overnight. Stays. You cannot typically stay overnight in the airport. Um, those of you who are thinking, yes, I can. It's really tough. I've had to do it once or twice. Some airports will kick you out and the ones that don't kick you out, it is a pretty miserable long night. 

So. It's a badge of honor as a traveler to have done that once or twice, but don't plan to do that to yourself. You also want to look at the connection time. these travel portals and travel booking sites and airfare sites. They will let you make connections that are way too short for you to actually be able to make. My friend, there is no way that you are going to get through the Atlanta airport in 45 minutes. But you might get booked on a flight that says you can, they have some kind of limit, but the limit is far lower than what is reality for most travelers on most days. 

So look closely and over time, you'll figure out what your ideal connection time is. I tend to like a good. Two hours if I'm not going to have to go through customs and show my passport, especially if I don't have people in my group who all have global entry, because we'll get stuck in the line. I'll talk about global entry in a minute. Um, but if it's international and it's Europe, especially, I really like to have more like four or five hours connection time. If everything goes perfectly sure. 

You're going to have some waiting time, but it's much better. Than missing your flight and then having to wait to get rebooked and usually have to wait in a very long line just to find out when you can get rebooked. So that is no fun to me. I would rather have a longer connection time. And, you know, I just bring a good book and I've got that lounge access, a lot of airports. 

So it's really not a bad way to pass the time. So give yourself the space. So you're not rushed and miserable, especially if you're traveling with folks who have limited mobility. Little kids. You know, all that kind of stuff. Why do that to yourself when you're going somewhere on fun. The other thing to watch out for which, uh, bites most people in the, but at some point. Is that many times when you are booking, if there are multiple major airports in one city, Sometimes they will connect you into one airport and out of another. 

So this happens all the time. If you're booking flights to connect in New York city, if you're not careful, you're going to come into LaGuardia. And then your next flight is going out of Newark or it's going out of JFK. Well, that's not fun. You have to take a bus or a taxi between the airports. You have to go through security twice. 

It takes a long time. And a lot of effort, I'm not saying never do it, but you don't want to do it on accident. That happened to me once coming back from Vienna and boy, it was not fun. I made it, but by the skin of my teeth and it's really not fun to be stranded in the middle of your travels. Waiting for the next flight. 

So, uh, just watch out for that one. Okay. I mentioned global entry. There are two services here in the United States that are so worth the cost. One is TSA. Pre-check. That gets you through the line pretty quickly. 

You get your own special line. You don't have to take your shoes off. You don't have to take your liquids out of your bag. You don't have to take your electronics out and really, more of benefit than almost anything else is you're in align with people who are frequent travelers and they know what they're doing. 

So unlike in the regular line where, you know, you have somebody who travels once in a lifetime and has no idea how any of this works and is going to take 35 minutes to get themselves through the security checkpoint. And get all their belongings and find their shoes, et cetera. You're in the line with the business travelers and the globe Trotters. 

So that's a really nice thing to do. It's really helpful to, it will save you short connections. You will make many short connections that you otherwise might not make. If you're running late for the airport. It'll get you through faster. Just really worthwhile. If you don't mind the extra paperwork involved and you do have to do an interview onsite at certain airports. 

So it is a little bit more involved. I actually would recommend doing global entry. It's not that much more expensive than TSA pre-check it includes pre-check in it. So you'll have pre-check if you get it. And it's good for five years, but global entry allows you to not just use the pre-check lane. But when you're coming back into the United States, you get to go to a much faster line than everybody else. 

Who's going through customs. So you will get to go, usually use a little machine, you scan your passport handover receipt and you're done. So it's significantly faster. And that, especially during busy travel seasons and especially in Europe in the summer makes a big difference. It may be the difference between you making your flight connection and you not making it. 

So I always endorse those and you can get the cost reimbursed so that it's free with many travel credit cards, including that chase Sapphire reserve that I mentioned. So when I have to update my global entry, which I just did recently, every five years, it's free. 

I don't even have to pay for it. I pay for it. And then I get a credit right away on my account. So. Those are definitely worth the cost. And one thing that just occurred to me this year, and I was like, why did I never think of this until now? I was always hesitant to go ahead and pay for my kids to have global entry or pre-check because they don't travel as often as I do. 

And it's an expense. It didn't occur to me that, oh, wait, I could have gotten one a year for free using that reimbursement because I have multiple credit cards that offer this as a benefit. So I could have just been putting one per year on different cards and gotten everybody for free. So I am going to do that now that I have thought of it, but just in case you haven't, now you have.

Now let's talk about the benefits of sketching out your itinerary ahead of time. I'm like six weeks ahead is pretty good. 

And you don't have to get every detail down, but just make a rough picture of what you want to do. So how many days are there that you'll be traveling? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to stay? And you can probably book your hotels at about that point. What are those top one, two, maybe three sites that you would like to see on each day? And how are you going to get around? 

So are you going to do train Metro rent a car, or are you going to do a flight within the continent? Have a look at all of those kinds of things and just plot it out. I usually do a shared Google doc and my partner and I, or my travel friend, and I will pass it back and forth. And that also is a good lead time to book a lot of things or determine when you need to book those things. 

So, for example, if you wanted to go to the Anne Frank House, In Amsterdam, most times of year, you need to book that right at the six week ahead, mark. Otherwise you won't get to go. There are other sites like the catacombs in Paris where it's one week ahead. And it is like down to the minute on the hour. 

So you'll want to know what are the best ways to get the tickets for the things that you might want to see. And what's the timeframe to do that. And if you sketch your itinerary out to at least six weeks ahead, you'll be pretty well positioned to do that. Now, some places, if you're going in the busy season, you actually might need to do it a little bit sooner. 

If you want to go to some high demand museums or. Other sites that are pretty difficult to get into. And a lot of people want to go to so sketch it out, get a rough plan. This will also tell you if you are envisioning, seeing way too many sites in a short amount of time. One two, maybe three is about the most. 

That's going to be comfortable for even the busiest of travelers. And I'm always tempted to wait until we get there and just do this loosey goosey day by day. And I always regret when I do so I've gotten better lately about sketching that plan out. If you have tickets to anything, train flights. Sites. Go ahead and download those and save them as local files on your phone, because you never know, even if you have cell phone coverage where you are, or even if you expect to have wifi access, you never know in the moment, if you're going to be able to get those tickets, if they're not saved locally, so save them on your phone. 

And I like to note in my itinerary doc, where the tickets are and what tickets I've already purchased. If it's time specific things like train rides or trains that we have to make sure we catch. I will put all of those as calendar appointments on my Google calendar too. 

It's a little tricky with time zone differences. And especially if you are going to encounter a daylight savings change, that does get a little tricky. So you want to double check it when you get there. But it does help to have all of that. They're prompting you on your phone and reminding you, because when you're jet lagged and busy and relaxed, or who knows, it's easy to lose sight of what your plans were. 

Sometimes I get very ambitious and I create an itinerary and a little info packet for my kids, especially when they were younger. 

But even now as teenagers, they really like that. So I'll put some pictures of a few sites. We're going to see. I will make note of any interesting local animals or birds. I will point out specific foods that wherever we are going to is known for even really oddball ones. 

Cause sometimes my kids surprise me and they're like, wow, I want to try fermented Icelandic, shark or whatever. And I also will make note of any family rules or a guidelines. For example, I have very low tolerance for complaining and whining. So I usually have some consequences in there for that. I don't have to do that anymore now that they are teenagers and good spirited travelers. 

But when they were young, I did have to have some rules in there about like, come on. We're here to have fun. Let's make this fun for everybody. And what I didn't know was that my kids would actually save those. They became a little keepsake item. They still have our books from when we went to the Virgin islands and to some other places. 

So that's kind of neat. I also find it is helpful each day to give each kid or teenager a job. So one of their jobs might be, make sure that we all get to the train on time. One of their jobs might be, you're going to find us a great place for lunch that everybody would like to eat. But just divide the work and give them a sense of responsibility and ownership and a say in the trip. 

That's a lot of fun for kids and for teenagers too. And those jobs can get progressively more complex. So as our kids have gotten older, sometimes that job is helped me figure out the Metro system and they often do. Figure out what bus we need to take that sort of thing. 

All right. So there's a general principle here that I want to share with you, which is the things that you always or often need for travel store them in your suitcase. Yes. 

This means you might have to buy spares for some of those things. For example, a phone charger. I mean, how much does an extra phone cable and charger cost? Couple dollars. How annoying is it when you get somewhere to realize you didn't bring yours the best way to do that is to have one that is specifically for travel that lives in your suitcase. This is also where I store my international outlet, adapters and chargers. 

I keep my credit card benefits guide that has all the details about insurance coverage. All of the benefits I might forget about, I keep that inside my suitcase, because when else might I need to consult it. I keep a photocopy of my passport in there. I keep a clean, dirty laundry bag that I have. A waterproof phone holder. 

So for times when we're going somewhere tropical or, you know, a water park, something like that, I have added there. I keep a bottle of Advil, packet of Immodium and a packet of Bo nine, which is an amazing motion sickness drug. I keep those in my suitcase. Just so I have them when I need them. When it comes time to pack, of course, some of these things will come out because they don't need them for this trip. 

And they'll get set in a little pile to be returned to the suitcase when I'm home. Other things will get moved over to my travel backpack. That is going to be with me at all times, but at least it's all together. 

I also keep a spare change purse. Actually. I have several of them in my suitcase and any leftover currency from a trip, unless it's somewhere that we're just never going to go again. I keep it in those change purses. And that's really helpful because when you are traveling, especially if you're going to several countries during one trip and they have different currencies, it gets confusing pretty quick. 

So you want a different little change purse for your local currency. Us dollars for me. For your travel currency , and, or currencies. So you might need several change purses. So I keep a variety of those in there, and I almost always have leftover euros in the euros change purse. And that is so nice. 

I was such a delight. Actually. I recently opened my bag and I was like, whoa, 50 euros. I had a whole 50 year old note and sure enough on that trip, I did spend it with no problem. It's just nice when you land to have a little bit of at least spare change, so you can use a public restroom, for example. Or to have money to tip and that sort of thing. Other things I keep in my travel suitcase. Um, I keep my sunglasses clip in there. 

So I have a clip so that I don't lose my prescription sunglasses. If we are going whitewater rafting or zip lining or kayaking, or even just going into the ocean. It is not fun to have to replace a pair of prescription glasses or sunglasses. And it's also not always easy to find those sunglasses clips. So I have several of them that I have acquired over the years. And sometimes with much difficulty and all of them stay in my suitcase now.

I keep a sleep mask. I keep some headphones that work with the airline adapters, because my iPhone headphones don't work on the flights. And I know you're like, but they give you headphones on the flights. 

Sometimes they do. And sometimes they don't. So I like to make sure I have them with me. I actually keep a spare white noise maker in my suitcase because I'm a light sleeper. I wake easily with loud noises and I love being able to plug that in when I arrive and turn it on. Aye. Imagine that someday when I invest in a pair of prescription goggles or prescriptions, snorkeling gear, that I would also keep that in my suitcase, because that would be the worst, right. 

To spend hundreds of dollars on some kind of specialty travel item like that. And forget it at home. A couple other things. I always keep in my suitcase. 

My travel toiletries bag. A quart sized Ziploc bag because it is the absolute worst to be packing at the last minute for a trip and realize. I don't have any Ziploc bags to pack my liquids in. And this is of course going to be the one time that I get flagged for not having it. So I keep one of those in my suitcase at all times. 

And when it finally starts to disintegrate or fall apart at the edges, then I put a new one in there. I also put my travel containers in there for liquids. And another thing that I keep in my suitcase or these days, I actually keep it on my phone is a list of must pack items. So these are things that I don't want to store in my suitcase, but I don't want to forget. 

So for me, that includes my passport, my Kindle. My swimsuit. There's some things like that, that can't live in the suitcase, but I need to not forget them. I also keep packing cubes in my suitcase. So if you've never seen packing cubes, These are these cloth and sometimes mesh little Zippy bags and you use them to organize your suitcase. 

So you can have all of your socks and underwear in one little bag, all of your t-shirts in another. And then it's actually surprisingly handy when you need to quickly rifle through your bag and get something it's not a big mess. They also make less a mess of your bag if they start digging through it in the security line or, or after you're clearing customs. 

So that's nice. But it also allows you to pack more stuff like incredibly more stuff, because it sucks all the air out. So if you don't own packing cubes, they're not very expensive. You can probably get a set for $30 or less. And I could never go back to not having them. 

You might have noticed by the way that I am not someone who checks a bag under any circumstances, unless they make me. 

Now, there is one exception to that. I will check a bag if I'm going to the Caribbean and I pack it full of sunscreen and snacks and things that are really expensive to buy locally, or that might not be easy to find locally. I have noticed that that in and of itself is worth the hassle of possibly losing it. Versus spending hundreds of dollars on sunscreen and some of these destinations, or not being able to find, SPF 50. Or a facial sunscreen or that sort of thing. 

So there are limits to when I won't check a bag, but they are far and few between. And especially if I am flying on any American U S airline, no way I do not trust them with my bags anymore. 

They seem to be better in Europe. I don't know why the smaller flights that go from one country to another, they don't seem to lose your bags like they do in the U S but. Absolutely not. I do not trust the baggage handling process. Another tip when you're packing is to always bring a swimsuit and possibly a pair of water shoes. 

You just never know. There might be a hot spring. There might be a pool that for some reason catches your eye. There might be some occasion that warrants a swimsuit. And unless you're the sort of person who just loves to have to run out and buy a new swimsuit in a strange land. On a spur of a moment and you can easily find one. 

You like, well, if that fits you then, okay, great. You don't need to pack a swimsuit, but for the rest of us who swimsuit shopping is not a fun or fast endeavor, just pack a swimsuit. You never know if you'll need it. 

I find too that a towel is incredibly handy for flights and you can carry it on to the flight so you can use it as a neck pillow, just roll it up and wrap it around your neck. 

And it works much better than the actual neck pillows people buy. It can be a blanket in an emergency when you are cold on the flight, because you forgot your sweatshirt. And if you end up going to a beach, you typically can't use your hotel or your rental towels for that. They will fine you for getting them dirty. 

So it's nice to have a towel of your own for many reasons. They can also be useful on your flight back. If you had some liquids in your bag that you're concerned about coming open. Or you want to just insulate something with a little extra padding, something breakable. That is also a nice use for the towel. 

So I often find that having a towel is beneficial. I bring reading material. I like to do both. A book, maybe a magazine, and I like to have an E reader because I just can't bring enough books for most trips for myself. 

I read too fast and it's kind of a drag to bring books and books and books with you halfway around the world, and then feel like you have to lug them all the way back home. Again, take up a lot of space. They're heavy. If you have an e-reader like a Kindle. And especially if you like to use your library to check books out and load them, do that before you get to the airport. Many of the wifi systems that they have at airports require some authentication steps that, clunky reader can't keep up with. 

So do that at home before you leave. One thing I do that I was surprised to learn. Some people have never thought of is I always pack snacks and meals for the flight. If you do not pack your own food for flights, you are at the mercy of whatever they are going to drag out of that kitchen on the airplane. 

And if like me, you are mostly vegetarian. That might be a cucumber sandwich on white bread, which happened to me one time. It might be that you signed up for the no dairy vegetarian meal and they brought you macaroni and cheese because I don't know cheese isn't dairy? It might be that whatever they come through with chicken or pasta is just completely foul. 

Even if you're somebody who generally will eat anything. There are many reasons to pack your own snacks and your own meals. There's been plenty of articles written about how incredibly high in sodium and fat and calories the typical airplane meal is. And so even if you just care about your health, Two easy meals that we often pack are just a little bag of peanut butter sandwiches. Those are very portable and they're tasty. Or I sometimes we'll just do a rice and bean burrito or maybe a rice bean and tofu burrito from somewhere like Chipola you can get it before your flight bring it. 

It'll be good for a couple hours. And when everybody else is digging into their disgusting meals. He will be so excited to have your burrito. 

Okay. As you are packing. It's really helpful to think through your clothes in terms of outfits that you're going to wear. And I like to pack what some people call a capsule wardrobe. So pieces that can be worn in multiple ways with different things. It is helpful to remember that you can hand wash and dry some things in your bag. So you may not need to bring as much as you think, and you might be able to reuse a few things on your trip. 

I also recommend that when you are getting dressed to go to the airport, Make sure that what you're wearing is really cozy and comfortable. You want comfortable shoes that you can easily remove if you're going to have to do that because you don't have pre-check. You want a cozy waistband and clothes that you can snuggle up in and feel relaxed in that does make a big difference in travel. 

In fact, I will often wear clothes that will double as lounge wear evening wear. So think like yoga pants. Loose, soft, comfortable. T-shirt those are my preferred things to wear while traveling. And then when I get there, if I have a chance to wash them, I might be able to wear them again.

So I hope that some of these tips for prep and planning for your trips have been helpful and that they make it easier for you to go off and have a good time. 

All right. It's time to share what I've been reading lately. I've really been into this suspense novel by Ruth Ware called turn the key. I don't want to tell you anything about it, but a big fan of Ruth Ware, and I think this is one of her better ones. So check it out.